Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/63

 own description, was meant to be "the simply-worded narration of a singular psychical experience, and included certain theories on religion which I, personally speaking, accept and believe."

What name, then, would this reviewer have chosen for the electric healer who is the principal male character in the work? Although he lived in Paris, it would hardly have been fair to christen him Alphonse, a name, by the way, strongly suggestive of a French valet. Clearly the critic here was unreasonable as well as idle.

With regard to the allegation as to dulness, we imagine that Miss Corelli's most bitter detractors have never accused her of this most unpardonable crime in a maker of books. Her imagination may take flights exasperating in their audacity to the stay-at-home mind of Wellington Street; she may occasionally state her opinions a thought too didactically for people who are themselves opinionated; when she cries shame on vice and humbug, her pen may coin denunciations somewhat too hot-and-strong for the easy-going and the worldly; but, whatever she is, or whatever she does, she is never dull.

In spite of the meagre allowances in the review way dealt out by the press to "A Romance of Two Worlds," the book prospered exceedingly. It is absurd to deny the power of the press—either for